Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite news and gameplay breakdown

Over the last day, a plethora of news about Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite was released/leaked. We now have new details on the release date, story, modes, and roster of the game, as well as some new gameplay footage. Let’s break down what we’ve been told by Capcom so far and what I’ve noticed in the footage.

So there’s a lot to take in from the two minute trailer but right off the bat it looks like we’re getting a proper story mode, much like that of Mortal Kombat, Injustice, and Capcom’s Street Fighter V. We get introduced to the antagonists who were teased in the original trailer: Marvel’s Ultron and Capcom’s Sigma. The two have joined forces as Ultron Sigma to fight the heroes of both sides, some of which we see in this trailer.

The new characters are:

Thor

Hulk

Hawkeye

Ultron

Rocket Raccoon

Chun Li

Chris Redfield

Strider Hiryu

They join Iron Man, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Ryu, Morrigan and Mega Man X as the current roster of the game. Sigma was also announced as the first of six DLC characters for the game. I’d imagine they are going to follow Street Fighter V’s system of a new season pass with six new characters each year, who are also easily unlockable for free with in-game currency.

Peter ‘Combofiend’ Rosas (ex-professional fighting game player and co-producer of the game) also makes a point to mention that the game will also feature Arcade, Training and Mission modes, as well as various multiplayer modes. The fact that he is explicitly stating this is likely a result of the backlash towards Street Fighter V’s lack of single player content. It launched with no mission/challenge mode and still to this day has no proper arcade mode.

Three separate editions of the game were announced, along with its release date: September 19th, 2017. The Standard Edition ($60 USD) is the game alone, while the Deluxe Edition ($90 USD) gets you the game, the Gladiator Hulk and Command Mission X costumes, and the 2017 Character Pass, which gives you the six DLC characters. The Collector’s Edition ($200 USD) gets you the Deluxe Edition along with four figures and LED powered infinity stones, made by Triforce. Preordering any version of the game also gets you the Warrior Thor and Evil Ryu costumes.

The MvC:I website also uploaded a handful of gameplay screenshots here. Graphically, the game is honestly looking pretty dull at the moment. They’ve gone for a more realistic art style, with characters like Hawkeye resembling their Marvel Cinematic Universe designs, that lacks the character of something like Marvel vs Capcom 3’s cell shaded comic book art style. The quality of the character’s faces when seen up close, like in their hyper combos or character icons, also looks very poor and some people are criticising the dull look of the HUD. Hopefully these remaining months will allow the team to polish up the game to make it look more presentable. Now, onto the leaks.

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A Neogaf user called ‘Ryce’, who has correctly leaked information regarding MvC:I in the past, has claimed some disturbing details about the game. Note: while Ryce has a good track record, these are still unconfirmed leaks and should be taken with a grain of salt. He’s said that there are “dumbed down gameplay changes” and that DP motions are no longer in the game, with Ryu’s Shoryuken now having a down down motion.

The Director of Licensing and Esports at Capcom has taken to Twitter to deny some of these claims.

A five minute video of raw gameplay was also leaked. It just seems like a bunch of clips of gameplay put together, rather than a leaked trailer, especially with the abrupt end cutting off Chris’ hyper combo. I have to say, after the ugly screenshots and scary rumors about the game, seeing it in action is a huge relief. It looks like the Marvel vs Capcom that I love, even without assists coming in to play.

Keep in mind that the game is still almost five months out from release, so things could change, but this is what I’ve noticed so far from the gameplay.

Gameplay Systems:

It looks like the game is round based. In the first clip you see the letters ‘HC’ and ‘V’ under Hawkeye and Thor’s health bars, respectively. The letters, which probably stand for Hyper Combo and Victory, indicate that the players are at 1-1 in their game. This is different from previous MvC games where defeating an opponent’s team won you a whole game.

The speed of the gameplay looks about what I’d expect from an MvC game. Although it may not look as complex or frantic as something like Marvel 3, that can be a combination of the absence of assists in the game, as well as the fact that the players in gameplay footage generally just play at a basic level.

Your meter maxes out at Level 4 now, rather than Level 5, and it appears that the stronger Hyper Combos will cost two bars, rather than three.

At 3:00 in the video, Ultron uses two bars of meter for a ‘Counter Switch’ to break out of a combo and switch into his other character. It looks like you’ll have to react quickly if your opponent does a Counter Switch as we see here that Thor continues comboing Ultron after the switch and gets punished for it.

Advancing Guard is back and it looks like it pushes the characters almost a full screen length away from each other.

The words ‘Auto Combo’ and ‘Easy Hyper Combo’ are seen throughout the video. My guess is that these are the ‘dumbed down’ parts of the game that Ryce was talking about. The Auto Combo could be a system, like Persona 4: Arena, where you can repeatedly press a button to get a basic combo that has a damage penalty. The Easy Hyper Combo could be one button Hyper Combos with a damage penalty.

Speaking of Hyper Combos, we didn’t see any DHCs (Delayed Hyper Combos). DHCs allow you to cancel one Hyper Combo into another character’s in order to extend a combo and switch characters safely.

We’ve seen more of the infinity stones in work. It looks like each of the stones has a unique move added to your character, as well as its X-Factor/V Trigger-like revenge gauge that fills up as you take damage. The time stone appears to give you a command dash, space appears to pull your opponent towards you, and power is an attack that wall bounces the enemy and allows for a combo. Once your stone’s gauge is filled past halfway you can activate to gain its effect. The more the gauge is filled, the longer the effect. Time increases your character’s mobility by giving you a spammable command dash, space restricts the enemy’s movement by placing them in a box, and power increases your damage output.

There’s an interesting use of the ‘Active Switch’ system, which allows you to switch characters mid combo, at 1:50. Hulk blocks Strider’s attack in the air just before Strider switches into Ultron, who crosses under Hulk for a mixup leading into a combo.

OTG (off the ground) moves are everywhere. It seems like all moves can OTG, rather than other games where only specific moves have OTG properties, but there is probably a limit to the amount of OTGs in a combo. Maybe this limit can be exceeded through Hyper Combos and infinity stone activations.

Character Details

Hawkeye has a similar Hyper Combo to his Marvel 3 one, but one thing is missing: Ant-Man. This is likely because Ant-Man will be a playable character this time around.

Strider Hiryu’s ‘Ouroboros’ Hyper Combo is now only a Level 1 rather than a Level 3 like in Marvel 3.

Chris has some sort of ammo mechanic showing three grenades below his health bar.

Ultron has a double jump and air dashes, as well as possibly the ability to hover. He also has an assist-like mechanic where he calls in one of his robots to use an attack and an air grab which he can combo into and from. His Hyper Combo shown is a laser which can hit from full screen.

After going through all the gameplay, I think the game looks like an absolute blast to play. I can’t wait to get my hands on it, especially to play Chun Li, Captain Marvel, and Ultron. Be sure to check back here for updates on Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite.